Kaiser (card game)

Kaiser, also called three-spot, is a trick-taking card game closely associated with the Canadian prairie provinces, most notably Saskatchewan, where it remains a popular social and tournament game today. It is played by four people in two fixed partnerships using a thirty-two card deck stripped down to the eight through ace of each suit, with the seven of clubs, seven of diamonds, five of hearts and three of spades carrying special significance beyond their ordinary rank. A hand begins with competitive bidding to set the trump suit and the number of tricks a partnership must take, and the two marked low cards can be worth as much as high trumps within the hand. The game's name is generally traced to the term kaiser bid, used for the highest possible bid of twelve no-trump tricks, itself echoed from Russian-influenced games such as troika played among prairie war veterans and Ukrainian immigrant communities. Its precise origins are not documented with certainty, and the game survives today chiefly as a regional tradition passed down through family and community play rather than through commercial publication.